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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Remembering Buddy

The post below stayed in draft mode until today. It is the reason I took such a long hiatus from blogging. This fall was just pretty crappy and I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer. Hopefully my black cloud has found a new home and I'll getting back into blogging mode.

This week didn't go as planned. It was our much anticipated vacation week. The week we get giddy about when discussing the plans, or non-plans that is. We go with no expectations to one of favorite central coast cities with a stack of books, magazines and a devil may care attitude.

We left on Sunday and stopped at one of our favorite wineries along the way. We ate our favorite food, shopped, browsed, read on the beach and then ate some more. By Wednesday we were getting antsy to get home as we had left Buddy, our ailing cocker mix, at home in the care of our son. We had reservations to stay until Thursday and planned to stay late that day before heading home. After showering Wednesday morning I noticed that my perfume was missing. I never leave anything valuable in a hotel/motel room but had stuck my bottle of Estee Lauder Sensuous in my travel bag Tuesday morning and it stayed on the bathroom counter when we left. I guess the temptation was too great for the person cleaning our room. The odd thing is, when we returned back to the room Tuesday afternoon I just didn't feel the room was as clean as it should be. Was this person rushing through in fear we would return early and find them out? Who's to know. I was so upset by the theft the I told The Comedian I didn't want to stay there another night. I reported the theft to the office and told them we were checking out. We packed up and checked the room three times so we wouldn't leave anything behind. Wouldn't you know neither of us realized those were OUR pillows jumbled up on the bed with the rest of the bedding. They're the kind of pillows you pay a small fortune for but they really help your neck/back. The hotel called us after we returned home and said they would send them UPS.

What does this have to do with the title of my post? I'm getting there. When we got back home we found out Buddy hadn't eaten while we were gone. We got him to eat some boiled chicken and broth in his food but he didn't seem like he had much energy. Everything was such a great effort for him. For the next couple of days we babied him and prayed he would get better. His recent bout with pancreatitis seemed to wipe him out. The ER vet we saw two weeks ago when we took him for the pancreatitis (at 1 in the morning) was very concerned about his blood levels and heart murmur but when I followed up with our regular vet he was more concerned with the grossly enlarged kidney.

This morning at one in the morning Buddy started crying out and we rushed to the foot of our bed to find him in pain and barely able to move. There was fresh blood on the carpet. We rushed him to the ER vet again (what a wonderful facility we have in our city!). After examining him we had a long discussion with the attending vet about what we should do. We didn't want him to suffer. It appeared he had multiple problems and in a dog that is nearly 12 years old it didn't seem wise, or fair to him, to prolong his misery. In all of my years of being a pet owner I have never stayed with one of my animals when they were euthanized. We both decided we wanted to be there for Buddy. We loved on him and had a laugh when Buddy did his "courtesy" growl when I got too much in his space. After much agonizing we told them it was time and he left this world. Sleep didn't come for us last night. We tried, but there were just too many tears to sleep. I know there will come a time when we bring another dog into our life. It is so hard to imagine right now. Sadie (our 14 year old boxer mix) wonders where her "brother" has gone. Even Miss Mimi cat did something last night she has never done. When I was laying in bed after we saying goodbye to Buddy she came and curled up in the crook of my arm and put her head under my hand for a rub. This went on for a very long time. It is so strange how animals can sense things.

I feel like someone has cut off one of my appendages. It is like I'm walking around in a fog. Our little Buddy Bazoo isn't there when we walk through the door. Farewell good and faithful friend. I will always remember Buddy.